The ability to move is essential to an animal’s ability to interact with and respond to its changing environment. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a commonly used organism in the study of the genetic and neural bases of behaviours, yet the mechanistic explanation for its ability to move in a smooth sinusoidal wave remains elusive. Here, I present studies of an uncharacterized gene, sto-6, encoding a stomatin protein that regulates C. elegans motor behaviour. I show that this gene plays a role in two unexplained and fundamental processes to C. elegans locomotion: wave initiation and wave propagation. Furthermore, I examine the genetic interaction between sto-6 and an innexin gene unc-7, providing support for the hypothesis that stomatins regulate gap junction proteins in C. elegans. Together, these studies push forward our understanding of the mechanistic basis of C. elegans locomotion, and open up avenues of further inquiry.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/42383 |
| Date | 15 November 2013 |
| Creators | Barbier, Louis Wei-Chun |
| Contributors | Zhen, Mei |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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